Beach Fun Turned Nightmare
by Hitora Gin
Summary: A humourous time at the beach turns tragic. Megumi's in trouble and Sano goes to save her. However, now Sano is in trouble. Who's going to save him?


Beach Fun Turned Nightmare  
  
Disclaimer: Rurouni Kenshin doesn't belong to me but to Nobuhiro Watsuki and other related companies. I am merely borrowing them for the use of my fanfiction.  
  
One-shot  
  
Time: Present  
  
The Kenshin Family, which includes Kenshin, Kaoru, Sanosuke, Yahiko, Megumi, Ayame, Suzume, Gensai-sensei and Tsubame were walking to the beach.  
  
"Kaoru-dono, are Misao-dono, Okina and Aoshi coming?" Kenshin asked, tugging at the sleeves of his shirt.  
  
"I think so. Kenshin, why are you pulling at your shirt? Stop it!" Kaoru said.  
  
"Sessha can't help it. It's so uncomfortable!" he said.  
  
"Ken-ii is a baby! Ken-ii is a baby!" yelled Suzume and Ayame, screaming and laughing.  
  
"Hey Kenshin! Relax! We're almost there! You can be in your birthday suit when we get there," Sano announced, laughing his butt off.  
  
Yahiko was rolling on the ground, laughing till there were tears in his eyes.  
  
"Yahiko-chan," Tsubame said, feeling completely left out.  
  
"Ooh! Ken-san! I would love to see you in your birthday suit," Megumi said, her kitsune ears popping out.  
  
Sanosuke stopped laughing and gulped.  
  
"Oro?" Kenshin looked at Kaoru who was blushing furiously.  
  
"Megumi!" Kaoru yelled, throwing a punch at her.  
  
"Oro?"  
  
"Don't ask, Kenshin," Gensai-sensei said, a sweatdrop forming.  
  
Finally, they arrived at the beach.  
  
"Kaoru! Kenshin! Over here!" Misao shouted, waving her arms frantically.  
  
"Who invited itachi?" Yahiko muttered under his breath.  
  
"Yahiko-chan. Misao-san is a very nice person. I can't believe you said that," Tsubame said, disappointment on her face.  
  
"Gomen, Tsubame. And please do me a favor?" he said with an earnest look.  
  
"Hai?" Tsubame asked curiously, smiling.  
  
"Stop calling me CHAN!" Yahiko hollered.  
  
"Kitsune-onna!" Sano called.  
  
"What, Sanosuke?" Megumi asked, annoyed.  
  
"How 'bout seeing me in my birthday suit?" Sano asked, wriggling his eyebrows in expectation.  
  
Megumi turned her face away and sauntered off.  
  
"What's with you and a birthday suit?" Misao asked, her large eyes bright.  
  
"Mind your own business!" Sano shouted angrily.  
  
"Aoshi, how are you doing?" Kenshin asked Aoshi, who sitting peacefully under a coconut tree.  
  
"Fine, Kenshin. Hm... I sense something troubling you," Aoshi said, his piercing blue eyes showing signs of concern.  
  
"Aah... it's just that everyone keeps on talking about sessha in my birthday suit," Kenshin said, scratching his head. "Sessha don't even have one, not that sessha even celebrates his birthday but..." he stopped talking when he noticed Aoshi's face turn a shade of blue and pink.  
  
"Is there something sessha should know, Aoshi?" Kenshin asked worriedly.  
  
Aoshi's eyes widened and he nodded his head vigorously. Aoshi whispered into Kenshin's ear and Kenshin's face turned blue.  
  
"Sessha... sessha... you mean..." Kenshin stuttered.  
  
He plopped on the ground in a heap and stared miserably at his friends.  
  
"Oi! Busu! Rub some sunblock on me!" Yahiko yelled to Kaoru.  
  
"Do it yourself! I'd prefer if you turned into a golliwog though," she yelled back.  
  
Kaoru was taking off her top and skirt, and was now in her bikini. Clueless to her, everyone who wasn't distracted, was watching and gawking.  
  
"I'll help you, Yahiko-chan," Tsubame offered.  
  
"Yeah... thanks," he said, not noticing that she called him chan.  
  
Yahiko was staring at Kaoru and was amazed that she actually had a figure. Tsubame just sighed enviously. Kaoru looked around for Kenshin and finally found him slumped next to Aoshi.  
  
"Kenshin?" she called, waving her hand in front of her face.  
  
"Kaoru, I don't think you should disturb him. He's in shock right now," Aoshi said.  
  
"Oh... okay," she said, unhappily. "Can you make sure that he goes for a swim later? Oh! And make sure he rubs on some suntan lotion on his skin. He needs the color," Kaoru instructed.  
  
A big question mark appeared above Aoshi's head but he nodded.  
  
"Hey Kaoru!" Misao called out to her, purposefully sauntering in front of Aoshi in her brand new blue bikini. 'That should knock his senseless, not speechless since he hardly speaks,' Misao thought to herself, grinning.  
  
"What is it, Misao?" Kaoru asked.  
  
She was squatting in front of Kenshin and staring at him.  
  
"Why don't we go for a swim? Sano and Megumi are already swimming," Misao said.  
  
"Oh, alright. I want Kenshin to swim too though," Kaoru said. "Hm... Maybe I should strip. That should bring him back to reality," she added, thoughtfully.  
  
"WHAT?""ORO?" yelled Aoshi and Kenshin at the same time.  
  
They crawled backwards, away from Kaoru and Misao, their eyes bulging in fear.  
  
"Just kidding!" Kaoru and Misao giggled. "Ja!" they called out, and catwalked to the water.  
  
Kenshin and Aoshi shuddered in their oversized shirts, fearful of the girls.  
  
"Kitsune-onna!" Sano called out.  
  
Megumi was on a huge float and she was just about to doze off.  
  
"Hm... what do you want?" she asked sleepily.  
  
"Do you want me to accompany you?" Sano asked hopefully.  
  
"No," she said and shut her eyes.  
  
Sano hung his head in disappointment and swam back to shore.  
  
"Darn," he muttered.  
  
He sat down heavily when suddenly, Ayame and Suzume started crying. Sano stood up to see what the problem was when he noticed that the place where he got up had half a sandcastle left standing.  
  
"Er... I didn't mean..."  
  
"Sanosuke, please don't disturb the girls. I need my rest and I can't possibly rest with the crying they're making," Gensai-sensei said exasperatedly.  
  
"Well, sorry! It's not like I did it on purpose!" Sano retorted.  
  
He bent down and looked at the girls.  
  
"How 'bout we build the biggest sandcastle ever?" he asked.  
  
"Yeah! Sano-nii will help us, ne?" they asked, wiping away their tears.  
  
"Yeesh... Never thought Sano would play with the girls," Yahiko told Tsubame.  
  
"You never know..." Tsubame replied, looking at the three and giggled. "Sano-san looks so kawaii behaving like that!"  
  
"WHAT! I'm way cuter than him!" Yahiko shouted.  
  
He went off to join them and Tsubame tagged along, eager to see Yahiko prove himself.  
  
"Misao-chan, this is boring," Kaoru murmured sadly.  
  
"How can you say that?" Misao exclaimed. "We have the sun, sand and sea! The three main 'S's!"  
  
"It's not that... Just look at them," Kaoru said and pointed. "Kenshin and Aoshi are sitting under that coconut tree and it's obvious that they don't want to have anything to do with us at the moment. Gensai- sensei is asleep under that beach umbrella, Sano, Yahiko, Tsubame and the girls are making a sandcastle, and Megumi is asleep on that float."  
  
"Hm... wait a minute. Someone's missing right from the start," Misao said.  
  
"I think everyone is here except..." Kaoru's voice trailed off.  
  
"OKINA!" they yelled.  
  
They scanned the whole area and saw a snorkel a few meters away from them. Taking a deep breath and plunging themselves into the warm sea water, they saw Okina staring at them with goo-goo eyes. They emerged and screamed. Okina too emerged.  
  
"HENTAI!"  
  
Misao kicked him and he disappeared.  
  
"My lovely Misao...." he shouted, as he disappeared.  
  
"Let's put on our clothes and join Kenshin and Aoshi," Kaoru suggested.  
  
"You got it," Misao confirmed.  
  
Sano saw the scene and laughed.  
  
'I wonder how Kitsune-onna is doing,' he thought to himself.  
  
He stood up at looked out at the sea.  
  
"Oi! Jou-chan! Where's Megumi?" he asked.  
  
"She was there a minute ago," she replied, struggling to pull a shirt over her head.  
  
Misao was toweling herself dry and getting Aoshi and Kenshin wet in the process. Sano looked out at sea again and saw a speck right out in the distance.  
  
"Kuso! Is that her?" he asked.  
  
"Sano! Go get her! She might be in danger!" Yahiko yelled.  
  
Sano nodded and dived right into the sea. On shore, the rest were screaming Megumi's name in an attempt to wake her up.  
  
'I doubt she can hear 'em,' he thought.  
  
He swam to the float with steady strokes and after like hours to him, he finally reached it.  
  
"Kitsune!" Sano whispered, nudging her softly.  
  
"Sanosuke, what is it now?" she muttered, with her eyes still shut.  
  
"Wake up and see where you are now," he urged.  
  
Megumi sat up and looked around her. She saw the beach and her friends but they were merely tiny dots in the distance.  
  
"Sanosuke! Help!" she yelled, frightened.  
  
"I guess you can't swim that well, huh?" he answered, grinning from ear to ear.  
  
"Do you always have to insult me?" Megumi yelled.  
  
Sano chose to ignore the question and began paddling back to shore. Due to the gentle waves, the journey back to shore was not as long as expected. However, a few meters to shore, Sano felt as though he bumped into something soft and immediately, he felt a sharp and stinging pain on his arm which coursed through his whole body. He screamed.  
  
"Sanosuke!" Megumi screamed, clinging onto his arm.  
  
Kenshin and Aoshi saw what happened and immediately pulled off their shorts and dived in. As Kenshin and Aoshi came to the float, they pushed Sanosuke onto it and pushed the float to shore. Megumi saw that a box jellyfish was clinging onto Sanosuke's arm.  
  
"Oh no! Ken-san! He needs treatment right away!" Megumi said.  
  
"Do you know how to?" Kenshin asked.  
  
Megumi nodded. Then, she jumped into the water and ran as fast as she could to shore.  
  
"Sensei! Sanosuke's been poisoned by the box jellyfish! We need medical equipment immediately," Megumi said to the doctor, who woke up due to the commotion.  
  
"Kaoru-chan. Call the ambulance," Gensai-sensei instructed Kaoru.  
  
"Hai," Kaoru said and dashed off.  
  
"I'll go too," Misao said and followed suite.  
  
When Sano was brought on shore, he was in hysterics due to the pain.  
  
"Is the box jellyfish dangerous?" Yahiko asked, as Megumi poured domestic vinegar onto the jellyfish.  
  
It squirmed and finally released Sano.  
  
"Yes, it is transparent in water so you can never tell when they're there," Aoshi explained.  
  
"I'm pouring this vinegar to stop the flow of the poison. I need an ice pack," Megumi said.  
  
Sano couldn't feel anything, let alone hear anything. The pain he was feeling was excruciating and his vision was blurring.  
  
'I'm losing this battle,' he thought.  
  
While he thought this, he did not even realize that he was thrashing wildly. Suddenly, his thrashing stopped and his eyes remained wide open. He was not even breathing.  
  
"No!" Megumi screamed. Pushing everyone aside, she did artificial respiration on him.  
  
"Come on, baka tori! Don't die now! You're going to get it from me," she muttered tears running down her cheeks.  
  
Suddenly, Sano took a deep breath and blinked his eyes rapidly. Megumi's face was inches away from his and she smiled. Tears fell from her eyes onto his face.  
  
"Kitsune, why are you crying?" Sano croaked, giving her a grin.  
  
When his hearing became clearer, he noticed that some of the people around him were crying. At last, he heard the wailings of the ambulance, and he fainted.  
  
When Sano came to, he opened his eyes and saw sunlight streaming into the ward. He tried to look around him but the effort was too painful.  
  
"Sano?" Kenshin called out.  
  
Then Kenshin-gumi had just entered the room with concerned expressions on their faces. Sano cracked a smile when he saw them.  
  
"The doctors said that you'd be fine though you'll have a scar on your arm," Kaoru said.  
  
"Hey! I can live with that," Sano said. "I'm aching all over though."  
  
"Once you're discharged, I can hit you again, right?" Yahiko asked, grinning.  
  
"If you can, brat," Sano laughed.  
  
The ward door creaked open and Megumi's head popped in.  
  
"Um... do you mind if I spoke to him alone?" she asked.  
  
"Of course," Kenshin said.  
  
However, he bent over and spoke to Sano in a low voice before pulling Kaoru and Yahiko out with him.  
  
"Kaoru-dono. Yahiko. No eavesdropping."  
  
"We never eavesdrop!" they protested, their voices and complains fading down the corridor.  
  
Megumi sat at the side of Sano's bed and smiled.  
  
"I'm sorry."  
  
"Nah, kitsune. It wasn't your fault the stupid jellyfish was there," Sano said.  
  
"But you were rescuing me!" she protested.  
  
"Then you rescued me. Isn't that fair?" he asked.  
  
Megumi remained silent. She stared at the long scar on Sano's arm.  
  
"That scar..." she started.  
  
"It'll be my reminder of our first kiss," he said, grinning mischievously.  
  
"That wasn't a kiss! It was artificial respiration!"  
  
"You did it like five times! Kenshin counted!"  
  
"Gr... Ken-san! Anyway, you were unconscious so that didn't count," Megumi said.  
  
"Whatever, kitsune-onna," Sano said, his eyes bright.  
  
"I shan't keep the rest waiting. They want to see you," Megumi said, standing up.  
  
"Hey!" Sano called out when she was almost at the door.  
  
Megumi turned to look at him.  
  
"I really appreciate it," he added.  
  
Megumi nodded and left, closing the door behind her. Sano sighed. Suddenly, her head popped in again.  
  
"Try not to be unconscious the next time I kiss you, okay?" she said, smiling.  
  
"Of course!" he replied, shocked at what she said.  
  
Megumi winked and left. Sano smiled. Life was looking good.  
  
~*OWARI*~  
  
Author's note: I know the part about Sano's short death and then he fainted was too quick but I didn't know how to make that part more interesting. *shrugs* Anyway, I learnt about box jellyfishes on the Discovery Channel and thought that it would make a good plot. =3 Here's a little in depth information on them.  
  
Box jellyfish  
  
Box jellyfish is considered the most venomous marine creature. It can kill more people than stonefish, sharks and crocodiles combined.  
  
Chironex may be found in shallow water at the edge of beaches in Northern Australian and Indo-Pacific region. Adult jellyfish spawn at river mouths in late summer. The fertilized eggs attach themselves to rocks in the form of tiny polyps. In spring, these polyps develop into small jellyfish that migrate downstream, especially with rains. They feed on shrimps and often frequent beaches that are attractive to humans. These animals have chosen a strategy of passive hunting- they simply wait for the prey to bump into their tentacles. Since a struggling shrimp can tear a young jellyfish, it needs to be killed instantly with a very strong poison.  
  
In each corner of the box-shaped bell, often as large as a basketball, there is a bundle of ten to sixty stinging tentacles, which can extend for up to 2 m.  
  
The body of a sea wasp can weight as much as 2 kg. The tentacles are armed with up to 5,000 nematocysts, or stinging cells. Certain chemicals on the surface of fish, shellfish and humans activate these. Contact with only 3 m of tentacles may be fatal for an adult. There are many (about 70) reported deaths that have occurred in northern Australia between November and April.  
  
According to recent discoveries, the box jellyfish is able to see through four eyes, one at the center of each side of the bell. It is not known how the animal processes the visual information without a brain. However, it avoids even the tiniest objects. Box jellyfish probably try to avoid humans as well; stings usually occur when people bump into them. An interesting fact is that turtles are not affected by their sting and eat them.  
  
Symptoms and first aid  
  
The venom of box jellyfish has cardiotoxic, neurotoxic and highly dermatonecrotic components. When injected, it is rapidly absorbed into the circulation. The pain is excruciating; the tentacles become sticky and adhere tightly to the skin. Any attempt at removal of the tentacles while they are still active may worsen the sting and lead to great injuries. Severe stings result in necrosis of the affected skin area. If treatment is not given, the pain may last for weeks and often stings leave significant scars.  
  
Domestic vinegar (never methylated spirits) should be poured over the adhering tentacles to inactivate nematocysts as quickly as possible. When the tentacles become inactive, they can be safely removed. (The application of vinegar is not intended to decrease pain or diminish the effects of the venom; it will only stop further discharging of nematocysts). In case of respiratory or cardiovascular failure, basic life support such as artificial respiration and cardiac massage is necessary. Where antivenom is not available, pressure-immobilization of the limbs may be used after inactivation of nematocysts while the patient is transported to hospital.  
  
Indications for antivenom include cardiorespiratory arrest or arrythmias, difficulty with breading, speech or swallowing and extensive skin lesions. Assisted ventilation and analgesics may be needed. Early administration of antivenom will reduce pain and decrease scarring. Local pain is usually best treated with ice packs. 


End file.
